| From: | Erik Jameson <erikj@****.COM> |
|---|---|
| Subject: | Re: Astral Magic (Re: New use for Masking) |
| Date: | Fri, 15 May 1998 13:31:08 -0400 |
>The generic answer is a blatant : "NO"
And that's the way it should stay.
>(BACK Erik, or so help me your newly established 'real estate' in
>California is the first to have a major -run- made against it's water supply
>;).
You're welcome to try. In addition to the on-staff security, all of us
residents are current or retired shadowrunners ourselves. You want to mess
with me, MC23 and Spike? I think not. And I'm pretty sure we could hire
Bull to deck into your system and leave your machine a smoking hulk of
plastic and optical chips...
>Anyway, seriously thinking, could you do a spell that performs the "Change
the
>Aura" from the idea of getting a projecting magician in/through a given
>magical barrier. Sort of an "astral stealth" or an "astral
symbiosis".
Well, this brings up a question. What does the caster's aura look like
when they shapechange into, say, a mouse? That's pretty easy I think, they
still retain the same aura, that of the (meta)human magician.
>Let's say that a spell has a given Force of 5 when cast by the projecting
>magician. It alters his astral projecting self into something that is more
>pliant or more "acceptable/compatible" with a given mana barrier that is say
>Force of 5 as well.
This sounds similar to the Aura Symmetry of Awakenings, but more complicated.
>Basically the spell would allow for a projecting magician the ability to
alter
>the general "abstract spacial compatibility" of him/her (it?) self. It
would
>only work when trying to penetrate various types of "astral barriers". This
>-might- include passive barriers such as the "Living Wall" theory. In this
>case, the target number would a "6" or a "4" (GM's decision of
course),
with a
>number of successes being required equal to the actual barrier rating of the
>wall/material in question. Because the "Living Wall" idea is "Passive
Astral"
>in nature, it is an unresisted test in that the barrier does NOT roll against
>the spell. Active Barriers, such as Wards, Mana Barriers, Lodges,
>etcera...are actively present and thus gain the ability to penetrate such.
Okay, what can change an aura. Cyberware dims or fuzzs parts of an aura,
but it's still the same "flavor" as it were.
Cybermancy? I would think that this would alter/shift an aura in many
ways, perhaps even altering that "flavor" this is a sort of astral
fingerprint (i.e. unique to each person).
Quickenings as I understand them from the sourcebooks and fiction sort of
are integrated into aura, but don't actually change the aura itself.
Nothing else can alter an aura. It maintains it's basic shape and size.
But let's say I were to allow an aura to "shapechange." It would clearly
have to be a cybermantic spell/ritual. That's the only thing I know of
that could possibly alter an aura. And it would probably have lasting, and
nasty, affects on the Target, such as ol'Wafflemeister's new magical flaws
or something.
But altering the size/shape of an aura or astral presence is simply not
possible given SR's cosmology and the current "tech" levels of magic.
Erik J.
"What was that popping sound?"
"A paradigm shifting without a clutch."
